Shopping circles: the savvy way to save
PERSONAL FINANACE
Comparison shopping has been all the rage for years in almost every retail sector bar groceries. The secret of the success of the huge shopping malls that sprung up around the country like mushrooms during the celtic Tiger years was the presence of lots of similar stores which consumers could compare against one another before making their buying decisions.
The major grocery multiples tend not to like open competition - they prefer a captive audience and really don't want us to shop around. and it's getting harder to shop around. rival supermarkets are unlikely to be found on the same street - more likely several streets or even miles apart. You're also unlikely to find easy-to-use price lists on the web or anywhere else for comparison purposes.
Unless you want to jump in your car and visit several supermarkets on the same day and then revisit them all buying the best value items on your shopping list in each there is no real way to make the most of the bargains which may be on offer at any given time. Or is there? The answer to the problem is the concept of 'shopping circles'. These work rather in the same way as car pooling or child minding arrangements between friends except instead of sharing the driving or babysitting duties you're sharing the shopping.
The shopping circle should ideally have at least five members with one member having one supermarket outlet to look after. On week one, the members of the circle pool their shopping lists and visit their assigned supermarket recording the prices of each item on the group list. after that, decisions are made on which items will be bought where and the members go out a second time to make the purchases.
After that, the circle's members monitor newspaper adverts and junk mail that highlights special offers and they meet every week to compile their shopping list. Unless there is an advertised special offer in one chain that makes it cheaper than the cheapest offer of the previous week the lists for the different outlets remain the same. This means that only one visit to the supermarkets is required on the day.
However, there is room for fine-tuning thanks to mobile phone technology. Members of the circle can call or text each other to alert them to special offers and decisions can be made to stock up on certain items or to switch a purchase from one shop to another. This may sound complicated and difficult but it needn't be and it can certainly save a lot of money. Firstly, you should only stick to branded or commodity type items where personal tastes don't influence the buying decision. stick to things like bread milk, frozen peas, kitchen towels and so on and you'll be very safe.
Secondly, this writer tried a small personal version of a shopping circle over a three week period using just three different supermarkets. The results varied between a saving of €13 on a €102 shop one week to €9 on a €97 shop on another. at that rate, a person with an average weekly shop of €100 could save €600 over the course of a year - money that's certainly better in your pockets than in the tills of the supermarkets.
